Category: Kuwait

I am a big fan of the chocolate cheesecake from Lorenzo but today I decided I am not going to have it anymore. I was at The Avenues killing time and on my way out I decided to pick up some cheesecake from Lorenzino Cafe so I could have them at home. It wasn’t my first time, its become a habit for me every time I visit The Avenues.

Today though there was a new manager there and he was a total dick. I went up to the counter and the manager came up to me, I told him I needed cake to go. He was like full cake or slices? I told him I needed two slices. He told me he wouldn’t be able to do that. I was like huh? Why? He told me he didn’t have any staff to action my order. I was like you have that guy (I pointed to one) putting cake on a plate, can’t he also put cake in a box? He told me no he couldn’t. I stood there for a few seconds bewildered before I decided to walk away.

I thought about getting into an argument with the manager because what he was saying didn’t make any sense but then I was like fuck it, its there loss if they don’t want to sell me cake. I should have gotten his name though so I could make an official complaint but I didn’t. All I remember was that he was Lebanese and had a shaved head.

I think this was one of my worst customer service experiences because it was such an avoidable incident. Usually I complain without offering a solution but today I decided I would.

What the manager should have done was the following:

a) Action the order himself which is what I would have done. At work when something needs to go out urgently in my department and there isn’t anyone to action the job then I would do it myself. Last Friday when Lorenzino was MUCH more packed, the manager (a different one) gave us the slices of cake himself. Its not brain surgery, its just taking cake from the fridge and placing them in boxes.

b) If he was too lazy to give us the cakes himself he could have at least told us that we could have the cakes but it would just take a bit longer then usual because they were really busy. Or maybe told us to come back in 15 minutes.

Anyway, I don’t need their cheesecake and I don’t need Lorenzo. If anything I am better off now since cheesecake is fattening.

The video was taken by a camera man was embedded in the convoy that took Sheikh Jaber from the airport to his home after his arrival to Kuwait following its Liberation. [YouTube]

Thanks NiceQ8i

A friend of ours surprised us tonight by pulling out an iPhone. Within seconds everyone was trying to get their hands on it, it looks a lot cooler in person than in the pictures. K.thekuwaiti has a more detailed writeup plus some more pictures on his blog, check it out. [Link]

I don’t know if anyone has any details on this or if they can confirm it, I heard that Easa Husain Al-yousifi & Sons Co. lost the brand Panasonic and instead now have Sharp. If this is true, who will get Panasonic?

update: Turns out they didn’t lose Panasonic but just added Sharp:

Dear Mark,

Thanks for the concern. We are still the agents of Panasonic in Kuwait. As for Sharp, we have created a joint venture with Al-Mulla group to better promote Sharp in Kuwait. We are dedicated to bring the best products with the highest quality to our customers.

Feel free to drop me a line at
[email protected]

yours,

Abdulaziz Al-Yousifi
Retail Manager

Just found out from a friend that Taco Time is coming back to Kuwait. They used to be open before in the mid 90’s but then shut down and now it seems they are reopening again. According to their website they will be opening 4 branches, one in Salmiya, one in Souk Salmiya, another in Hawalli and one more in Salwa. The Salmiya one is supposedly behind Johnny Rockets and the signage seems to be up. The launch according to their website is third quarter of this year. [Link]

Two years ago I posted about the signs on the Gulf Road that are placed before the exits that take you to the sea side restaurants like Chili’s and Fridays. Well today I noticed they have new signs in place and they look even worse! Not only that but they have two of the signs mixed up, they have the Fridays sign at the exit for Johnny Carino’s and the Johnny Carino’s sign in front of the exit for Fridays.

This is the latest cost comparison chart put together by k.thekuwaiti of local internet providers.

More details [here]

I’ve been having a ton of fun with this at the office,
its the best bang for the buck.

They are selling the limited edition Bugatti Perfume at The Avenues for a price of only KD975. The picture above is of the gold plated, 400 piece limited edition version but the one at The Avenues is the chrome plated edition with 4,000 pieces world wide. So one more time in case you think I mistyped, its KD975 for a bottle of perfume thats Nine, Seven and Five!

I’ve had my eye on the Sonos digital music system for awhile now but I never bought it because I simply don’t listen to music at home. Today while I was at Alghanim Electronics I saw the device in person for the first time and it actually looks as pretty as in the pictures.

I don’t know how long they’ve been selling it for since I don’t frequent Alghanim, but the Sonos was priced pretty expensive at KD436. The newer and larger bundle on Amazon costs only KD288.

Baskin Robbins have a new milkshake called the Crunchy Shake. What makes it different from the regular shakes is that they blend a waffle cone with it so that while you are sipping your drink you get to taste the tiny bits of waffles. In theory it sounds good but my experience wasn’t.

First you get to choose three different flavors of ice cream for your shake. That is the fun part since you have a large variety to choose from but I went with the safe route and just chose chocolate mousse for my drink. The employee then took my scoops, dropped them into a blender with milk and a large waffle cone and then turned it on.

The flavor of the drink wasn’t that bad, the waffle cone bits actually do make a difference. The problem I had with my drink was that it was too liquidi, it was as if the employee put too much milk and not enough ice cream. That ruined the shake for me and after drinking half of the cup it just became really gross. I don’t know if this is how the shake was meant to be but I didn’t like it. Final score is a 2 out of 5.

There are three other teams that I know of who have also been accepted to Red Bull’s Flugtag.

Rampurple’s team got accepted. They will be called B Toons.
Patrick Semaan’s team got accepted. They will be called The Phoenix.
MacaholiQ8’s team got accepted. They will be called Dragonfly Team.

Any more bloggers involved??

Last night I had dinner at the Al-Muhallab Seafood restaurant at The Palms hotel in Bida’a. Since it was a business dinner and I didn’t pay the bill, this isn’t going to be a full review meaning I won’t give it a score at the end.

The restaurant is located right at the back of Palms and I imagine during the day you could most probably see the sea. They tried to make the restaurant look Kuwaiti but I didn’t feel it. When you first come into the place you go through an old wooden door which leads you to believe you will be walking into an old Kuwaiti house but once you are in the place opens up into this large cold space and it just kills the mood. I found the place too bright and not very cozy. The place should have looked like Oum Habib but instead you are greeted with a high ceiling, and old Kuwaiti artifacts hung around the walls in very Fuddruckers and Chilis style.

Now on the other hand, the food was really delicious. We chose a couple of hamours, lobsters, crabs, shrimps and zbeydi and then had them grill it for us. When the food arrived the waiters cut up the fish and served them to us which made dinner more enjoyable. The grilled shrimps was my favorite followed closely by the hamour.

Its a pity the place wasn’t designed nicer, thats the biggest let down. Even though the food was good I doubt I would go back. For me the atmosphere of the restaurant is as important as the food, they compliment each other and in this case the food was much better then the restaurant.

You can check out the Al-Muhallab Seafood website by clicking [here]

In June I posted about how a group of us applied for the Red Bull Flugtag which is going to be held in November at Marina Waves. Well today we got word that our application and plane design got approved.

Our team is called Imperial27, in remembrance of Imperial Airways which was the first airline that flew in and out of Kuwait back in 1927. The team will be composed of lead pilot and magician Nibaq, accompanied by conspiring engineering extraordinaries Marzouq, Mark and K.

The Kuwait Airport website has been redesigned. It’s pinker and more girlish now! [Link]